A Swansea court has sentenced 44-year-old Stewart Alderton to 22 months in prison after he repeatedly breached a sexual harm prevention order. Alderton, who thought he was sending explicit videos to a 12-year-old girl, was actually interacting with a decoy account. Despite being under a strict court order to register and make his digital devices available for police inspection, he concealed phones, erased messages, and removed apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat to hide his online activities.
Originally caught in 2021, Alderton faced a suspended sentence but failed to comply with its terms. Over time, his mental health deteriorated, leading to job loss and homelessness, where he suffered severe frostbite, resulting in the amputation of three toes. Despite his struggles, including ongoing mental health challenges since his teenage years, he ultimately ended up breaching the order 11 more times in 2025.
After being reported missing, Alderton was found by police in Lincolnshire, his car flagged by police systems, revealing the extent of his breaches. His lawyer argued that Alderton has come to realise he cannot manage outside of custody and accepts that prison is the best option for him now. With guilty pleas accounted for, he will serve up to half of his sentence in prison before being released on licence. This case underlines the importance of monitoring sex offenders and reinforces that breaches of such orders will have legal consequences.